The book of Hebrews tells us that this Spirit is the eternal Spirit. Christ as the unique sacrifice offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14). This fact insures or secures the offering of Christ for eternity. This offering accomplished an eternal redemption because it is an eternal offering. The eternal Spirit has made the death of Christ eternally efficacious. The accomplishment of His death covers all the believing Old Testament saints and New Testament believers including you and me. Although He died on Calvary nearly two thousand years ago and many miles away from us, that death is applicable and available to us because that death was accomplished through the eternal Spirit. His death is an eternal death which is available and applicable to all persons in any place and at any time.
In Hebrews 9:14 we again see the Trinity—Christ, God, and the eternal Spirit. Christ offering Himself to God through the eternal Spirit is a great mystery. Christ, the Spirit, and God are one. Based upon this, we could say that the Triune God offered Himself as an offering through Himself to Himself.
Hebrews 9:14 does not say that the eternal Christ offered Himself to the eternal God through the Spirit, but it says Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. This offering is eternal and real because it is offered through the Spirit. Today when we touch the Spirit we touch this offering. Since we are the partakers of the Spirit, we are also partakers of the unique offering, partakers of an eternal redemption. Once you become a partaker of the Spirit, you partake of everything which is related to the Spirit.
We must realize that the Lord labored, worked, and lived on this earth through the eternal Spirit. Whatever the Lord accomplished and experienced in His living, labor, and work has been made eternal by the eternal Spirit. This eternal Spirit is all-inclusive and we are the partakers of such a Spirit. He is the Spirit, as the Son, with the Father being the consummation of the processed Triune God in the church.
We believers do have this eternal Spirit and we are the partakers of this Spirit. He comprises Christ, God, the eternal life, and the eternal redemption. He comprises everything because He is the eternal Spirit through whom the Triune God offered Himself to Himself as the eternal offering.
This book also tells us that the Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). The Spirit of grace simply means that the Triune God in the Son as the Spirit becomes our enjoyment. The Spirit is the reaching of the Triune God to us. The Son could not get into us until He became the Spirit. He was among the disciples, but He needed to go through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45). Then He was able to breathe Himself as the Holy Breath into the disciples for their enjoyment (John 20:22).
When the Bible uses expressions such as the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of life, and the Spirit of reality, this means that the Spirit is grace, life, and reality. Therefore, when we are the partakers of the Holy Spirit, this means that we are the partakers of the Holy Spirit as grace. The Holy Spirit is our possession and grace is our possession. It is always better to pray, “Thank You Lord for another day, a new day, and thank You that I have the grace to live You today.” The Spirit of grace is the eternal Spirit; hence, the grace is eternal. The grace we received is the eternal grace which is the eternal, unlimited Spirit. It is inexhaustible.
The Gospel of John reveals that God came in the way of incarnation. The Word, who was God, became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace (John 1:14). Hymns, #497 tells us that grace in its highest definition is God in the Son to be enjoyed by us. Grace is God in the Son for our enjoyment. Many of us enjoy eating steak. Steak is beef and beef is a small part of a big cow. The only way such a big cow could be our enjoyment is by processing it. The cow must first be killed and then cut into pieces. Cutting alone, however, is not adequate. These pieces of steak must be cooked. After such a long process, the beef is now available to you. In like manner, for God to be our enjoyment in the Son, He must be processed.
We have seen that the Word was God, and this Word became flesh, full of grace. John 1:17 tells us that the law was given through Moses, but grace came through Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” God has given us a unique gift, and this gift is nothing less than His only begotten Son. John 3:16 is directly related to John 1:14. God gave His Son to us by incarnation. If God had never become a man, how could He have given His Son to us? God gave His Son to us by becoming a man. Actually John 1:14 explains John 3:16, and John 3:16 defines John 1:14. By putting these two verses together we have the right understanding of the divine fact that God has given Himself in the Person of the Son by the way of incarnation. Although the Son is such a gift, before our receiving of Him He is not grace to us. When we receive Him, He immediately becomes the grace.
Someone may give you a gift of cheesecake. Cheesecake is a gift of cheese. You may say that the “person” of the cake is cheese. This cheese is given to us in the form of a cake. Jesus Christ was the form, the “cake.” The Person of this cake is God. God gave Himself in the Person of the Son as a gift to us by becoming a man. The cheesecake is a wonderful gift but it cannot become our enjoyment unless we eat it. If we eat it, our eating of the cake becomes our enjoyment. God in the Son is only a gift, not grace yet. When this gift is enjoyed by you it is no longer merely a gift but grace. Before your enjoyment, the cheesecake was a gift, but after your enjoyment, the cheesecake becomes grace. After our eating, the gift becomes grace, enjoyment. The gift has been transfigured into grace.